LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

Experiments in Creativity

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

If you allow them to, ideas for art and writing can come from absolutely anywhere. This creative generation class will put that theory to the test, through a series of experiments in creative problem-solving, spontaneous and chance-based play, and other exploratory prompts that challenge you to work outside your normal modes and investigate how the creative brain works. Prior to the start of this series of classes, each participant will receive a unique packet of random materials in the mail. In-class exercises and weekly assignments will ask you to work with these materials in various ways, including an opportunity to create collaboratively at a distance. You’ll also keep a weekly journal detailing your personal process and ideas about creativity. As support for this process, we…

$300

Writing the Autofiction Novella: twelve week intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Autofiction is a unique genre (or non-genre) that combines the autobiographical with the fictional. In this course, we will take a close look at the craft of autofiction. We will read novel excerpts, short stories and novellas. We will also look at craft essays on the form. The goal over the twelve weeks is to work on a draft of a novella (if not a full draft, then you will get a solid head start), which can be anywhere from 20K-40K words. This course will be generative. You will be expected to write and submit a substantial amount of prose per week (1500-2500 words). We will read about 25 pages of excerpts and craft essays each week and discuss them as a group. And there…

$595

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…

$80 – $200

In-Store Reading: Camille Cole: The Midnight Show

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland author Camille Cole for a reading from her memoir, The Midnight Show: Bohemians, Byways & Bonfires. Signed and personalized copies are available for order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About The Midnight Show: Hang on for the ride of her life. At times a treacherous high-wire act, Camille's wedding was the final act at the Oregon Country Fair's Midnight Show a long time ago. At 2:00 a.m., Reverend Chumleigh, henchman for the Miraculous Church of the Incandescent Resurrection, was perched on a tightrope wearing a leopard skin leotard. He pronounced Camille and Jim permanent partners till the cows come home,…

Free

The Break with Kaveh Akbar

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, “The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though many of the activities and discussions orbit or are inflected by recovery themes (Akbar has been in active recovery for eight years), participants are not required to self-identify as being in recovery to participate.” Register at: https://www.portlandalano.org/the-break Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and scholar, and the author of Pilgrim Bell, published by Graywolf Press; Calling a Wolf a Wolf, published by Alice James Books in the US and Penguin Books in the UK; and the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic, published by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2014, he founded the poetry interview…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: Language as resistance, words as collage: Don Mee Choi and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Though published many decades apart, these two texts share similarities both in their subject matter and their experimental qualities. Just as Dictee cannot be merely labeled as a memoir and DMZ Colony cannot be labeled purely as a poetry collection, both texts expand our understanding of genre by weaving together prose, poetry and photographs. Moreover, they “hold history accountable” by integrating historical events into the deeply personal, ranging from Japanese colonization of Korea to the Korean War. In doing so, these Korean American writers give voice to feelings and understandings that have often been silenced. By looking at these two texts in tandem, we will examine their use of language to resist power and silencing as well as how their experimental methods seek to give…

$160

Filament Reading Series

The Corporeal Writing Center 510 SW 3rd Ave #101, Portland, OR, United States

Filament is BACK! Filament is an all-genre Creative Writing Reading series from Portland State’s MFA Program. Join us on February 17 from 7 - 8:30 PM at Corporeal Writing to hear five talented writers from the Creative Writing program read their work! Free to attend. Masks and Vaccine Cards Required. Featuring: Joshua Stanek, Natalie Flaherty, Nora Broker, Jay Butler, and Alex Roselio De La Cruz

Free

The Moth: StorySLAM: Love Hurts

Holocene 1001 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States

LOVE HURTS: Prepare a five-minute tale about a love that made you go OUCH. The agony of deferred love! The misery of good love, gone bad! The anguish of one-way love! Bring stories of your heart, kicked to the curb by the people or places or things you love...or used to love. Love that "Hurts So Good" also welcome. COVID Requirements: See Holocene's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 21+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts

$15

OMSI After Dark: Books & Brews

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) 1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for OMSI After Dark: Books & Brews! Find your next favorite book, learn how to get self published and sample local brews. The ultimate night out! Typically the last Wednesday of the month, OMSI After Dark is a 21+ event that gathers local vendors, artisans, and science content for you to enjoy. Get ready to taste test a local brew, catch a show, or try a science demo – all while exploring the museum’s permanent exhibit halls. CURRENT COVID RULES Masks are optional for guests although we still highly encourage you to wear a mask and recommend you wear an N95 or KN95. We are limiting capacity to 1,200 guests. 21+ Only | A valid government issued ID is required for entry for…

$25 – $40

Portland Arts & Lectures 2022/23: Patrick Radden Keefe

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

This event is part of our 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures. Subscriptions for the five-part lecture series are on sale now. All lectures will be held in person at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland, OR. For more information on the season, please see our FAQs or reach out to us at la@literary-arts.org. Patrick Radden Keefe Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of four books including the New York Times bestsellers Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, which was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year, and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory…

$90 – $355